Let's Brew - 1947 Barclay Perkins XX

I told you it was watery Mild month. still time to squeeze in a couple more before June rolls around.

The late 1940s weren’t the best time to be a Mild drinker. At least if you wanted to get pissed. Watery was the key word.

Though there are some rather interesting recipes. Like XX, for example. Rather than being coloured up solely with sugar, there are two coloured malt: crystal and amber. The real grist was even more complicated than it appears in the recipe, as two-thirds of what is listed as mild malt was really SA malt.

The hops were a combination of Mid-Kent Fuggles from the 1945 and 1946 crop and Mid-Kent Tolhursts from 1944.

To account for the primings, which raised the effective OG by three points at racking time, I’ve added more No. 3 Invert sugar.

1947 Barclay Perkins XX
mild malt	5.00 lb	68.97%
amber malt	0.33 lb	4.55%
crystal malt 60 L	0.50 lb	6.90%
flaked barley	0.33 lb	4.55%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.00 lb	13.79%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.09 lb	1.24%
Fuggles 75 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1033.5
FG	1009
ABV	3.24
Apparent attenuation	73.13%
IBU	21
SRM	15
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	75 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

Victory to Austerity

When I cranked up this blog, the idea was that it would track my research. A diary of my dives into the dusty depths of archives.

Ignoring rambling reports of my drunken meanderings around the beer-pots of the world, I've served up unleavened bread. Facts and numbers not quite fully formed.

Being prolific has its downside. The volume of words and numbers is hard to keep under control. Early in my blogging days, I started copying my posts into Word documents. By theme. Resulting in quite a few of my Mini Books and Mega Books. Porter! Mild! Bitter!, Strong!, London! Books like that.

They're an assembalge of research notes. Interspersed with a few crap jokes. Good as I think some of them are - Porter! I'm particularly proud of - they were never my final goal. They were a step on the way.

I was crazily over optimistic when I began my beer history swim. Soon plunging into a mad book project on British beer 1700 to 1973. The unfinished manuscript is enormous. One chapter may be the longest blog post of all time.

Victory! is an unpublished book of mine on post-WW II beer. The nailed-together blog post kind. I say unpublished, there are two copies. It was the prize for the who owns most of my books contest. And, obviously, I got one for myself.

Tell me if I start boring you with this shit. I'm listening to John Coltrane.

My bloggy books, wonderful as they may be, are really my notes. Time I started turning them into proper books. Like with Scotland! vol. II. A coherent book. I had so much fun writing, I decided to write one a year.

I got a bit stuck on the one I intended for this year. Ran out of enthusiasm. What to do?

Knock out a quick recipe book, I thought. Last years' Let's Brew sold pretty well. I've got a shitload of post-war recipes. I can bang together the recipes with some geeneral crap about brewing in the period. And lots of tables. Easy peasy.

That was the plan. Just wish I knew when to stop. The brief introduction has gained bulk. I've promised myself to stop adding new stuff on Sunday. Evening.


Austerity! British brewing 1945 to 1965. My next book. Such a sexy topic. A distillation of the unpublished Victory! And the second chapter to be published of my crazy big book. (The other is Peace!) Third, if you count the crazy long blog post.

Published when I get the recipes done. The counter is at 102, currently. I'm sort of aiming at 200, but may settle for 150. How many watery Mild recipes do you need?

Lager brewed in Germany 1952 - 1963

I'm continuing my series of random Lager analyses from the years following WWW II. Why, you may ask. The simple answer to that is: because I can. This is my blog and I can do what the hell I like.

That's the glory of a blog. There's no editor looking over your shoulder. You're 100% on your own. Which is the way I like it. I hate being told what to do.

Getting back to the topic of this post, these are beers which I'm pretty sure were on sale in the UK. The ones with a price listed, almost certainly so. Though all are some sort of Pale Laager, there's a fair amount of variation in strength.

The two examples at just over 1030º were definitely specifically brewed for the UK market. No-one in Germany drank Lager that weak. The ones at 1040-1042º couldn't have been for the German market, either. There was a gap in the tax gravity bands between 9º and 11º Plato (approximately 1036º-1044º. so those must be some sort of beer for export.

It's interesting to see so many examples of Holsten. A little later - in the 1970s and 1980s - Holsten was a big brand in the UK. I wonder if that was because they'd got into the UK market early?

Lager brewed in Germany 1952 - 1963
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1957	Dortmunder Union	Pilsener	47	1042.8	1007.4	4.61	82.71%	8
1963	Dortmunder Union	Pilsner	44	1042	1006.7	4.41	84.05%	9
1952	Dressler	Lager		1051.8	1009.4	5.53	81.85%	6.5
1963	Elbschloss	Ratsherrn Lager	48	1030.5	1006.3	3.03	79.34%	13
1961	Hackerbräu	Hackerbräu Light	66	1051.7	1014.5	4.65	71.95%	8
1957	Holsten	Holsten Pilsner		1044.7	1007.4	4.86	83.45%	8
1957	Holsten	Holsten Pilsner	42	1044.7	1008.2	4.75	81.66%	8
1961	Holsten	Holsten Lager	40	1044.1	1008.1	4.50	81.63%	7
1961	Holsten	Pilsner Lager	40	1045.5	1000.8	5.59	98.24%	7
1963	Holsten	Pilsner	44	1046.1	1006.7	4.92	85.47%	6
1957	Löwenbräu	Pale Bock	51	1061.9	1014.3	6.20	76.90%	6
1961	Patzenhofer	Patz Lager	42	1041	1007.5	4.36	81.71%	7.5
1959	St. Paul	B.B. Lager		1030.7	1010.3	2.64	66.45%	7
1950	Tucher	Tucher Pils Lager		1055.1	1014.4	5.29	73.87%	15
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

All of the beers were hideously expensive. To put things into perspective, you could get a pint of Truman's bottled Light Ale for 20d. That's a beer, at 1031.8º slightly stronger than Ratsherrn Lager, for less than half the price. I'm not sure I understand why anyone would voluntarily pay more than double the price for their beer.

The London hop market in May 1898

Another little interlude. This time looking at the prices for various types of hops.

The table below is dead handy as it gives any idea of how much the various types of hops were valued by British brewers. Though much of what it tells me I alreadt knew. For example, that East Kent Goldings were the most prized. And that Belgian hops were cheap. Interesting to see that Alsace hops were some of the better liked continental hops.

You may be wondering why there are three columns for each year. They're the price of the differeng grades of hops, obviously working up from lowest to highest.

"Hops.—There is scarcely any feature of interest to observe in this market, which, since our monthly report of the 14th ultimo, has been very quiet, and business has been on a much contracted scale. Speculation, it is almost needless to say, has been entirely dormant, and as most of the brewers are fairly well stocked with hops, the demand from the trade has been confined to the making up of odd parcels and the completion of unfulfilled orders. English descriptions, wherever and whenever they can be procured, have been much preferred to other kinds, but owing to the absence of a proper assortment, few purchases of importance have taken place, and no fresh advance having been established, present rates remain the same as those of a month ago. All the best "yearlings ” have either disappeared or been worked off, as practically none are left to bear a quotation, and nothing is now to be had above £3 10s. per cwt. An inquiry has existed for Continental hops, and good qualities have realised firm prices ; but California growths have been less generally sought after, and their outturn and condition not being thoroughly satisfactory, this, with their comparative abundance, has induced holders to submit to rather lower terms, say £2 5s. to £5, for common to the finer grades. American hops, however, exhibit no alteration, and this day’s general currency in the Borough, as approved by the merchants there, rules as follows :-—

Hop prices in London May 1898
	1898			1897			1996
	£ s.	£ s.	£ s.	£ s.	£ s.	£ s.	£ s.	£ s.	£ s.
East Kent Goldings 1897’s	4 15	5 10	7 0	2 0	3 0	4 10	1 15	2 16	4 10
Mid-Kents ,,	4 16	6 0	5 15	2 0	2 16	3 15	1 10	2 5	3 15
W. of Kent ,,	4 10	5 0	5 12	1 10	2 5	3 0	1 0	1 10	2 16
Sussex ,,	4 10	4 15	5 0	1 15	2 5	2 10	1 0	1 10	2 10
Worcesters ,,	4 5	4 10	5 0	1 10	2 10	3 0	1 0	2 0	3 10
Farnhams ,,	4 10	4 15	5 12	2 0	2 10	6 15	1 0	2 0	3 10
Country Do. ,,	4 10	4 15	5 10	2 0	2 10	3 10	1 0	2 0	3 10
Yearlings 1896's	2 5	3 10	-	0 10	2 0	—	-	0 10	1 0
Old Olds	1 0	1 10	—	0 5	0 10	—	0 5	0 10	—
Bavarians 1897's	4 0	4 10	5 10	1 18	2 5	3 10	1 10	2 0	2 10
Belgians ,,	2 2	2 10	3 3	1 5	2 0	-	1 10	2 0	—
Alsace ,,	—	4 4	4 15	1 12	2 0	3 10	1 0	2 5	—
Bohemia ,,	none.			none.			none.
Burgundy ,,	4 4	4 10	4 15	1 15	2 0	2 16	1 10	2 5	2 10
American ,,	3 0	4 0	5 10	-	2 14	3 15	—	2 0	2 16
Californian ,,	2 5	3 10	5 0	—	3 0	3 15	1 0	1 10	2 10
Foreign Old Olds	0 10	0 15	-	0 5	0 10	-	0 5	0 10	-
Source:
"The Brewers' Journal, 1898", page 391.

Messrs. Tuchmann and Low, 11, Southwark Street, London, S.E., report as follows on the English and Foreign Hop market :— “Since Easter we have a better inquiry and more business doing. Good useful copper hops have been in request, and as the stock of those remaining unsold is small holders continue firm in their demand as to price. Continental hops are without much alteration in value. Pacific Coast hops the last few weeks have been receiving more attention, and some business has been done in these, the cheap prices at which the lower qualities were, being offered having stimulated business.”

Messrs. Bloch Brothers, of Nuremberg. write us on the 10th inst. as follows :—"Our market continues unchanged. Stocks are exceedingly reduced, and the volume of business is necessarily quite small; prices remain firm on the same basis as last month. The new hop plant is doing well so far, but, of course, it is too early to attach any importance to this fact.”
"The Brewers' Journal, 1898", page 391.

Of the foreign hops, only Bavarian and Burgundy commanded close to the same price as English hops. It's just a shame that there were no Bohemian hops. I suspect they would have been rivalling English hops in terms of price.

The difference between the price of American and Californian hops is fascinating. I'm pretty sure the former are hops grown on the East Coast, mainly in New York state.

Old olds, if you're wondering, are hops more than two years old.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1958 William Younger XXX

Continuing my Watery Mild Month, here's an example from Scotland. AAt under 3% ABV, it definitely passes the watery test.

What’s the difference between XXX and XXPQ? Not very much, despite one being a Mild and the other a Bitter. William Younger were always a funny bunch.

The OG, FG and hopping rate of the two beers are identical. The only difference is the lack of candy sugar and a little more flaked maize in XXX. The only really big difference between the two beers isn’t visible in the brewing records: the colour. I know from Whitbread Gravity book analyses that the colour of XXX was around 19 SRM. Presumably this was achieved by the addition of caramel at racking time.

William Younger is unusual for a Scottish brewery in making a Mild at all. Most had dropped Mild before WW II. With coloured up 60/- Pale Ale operating as a substitute. I assume the reason Younger still brewed one was that they had quite a large amount of trade in England, where Mild was still king in the 1950’s.

1958 William Younger XXX
pale malt	2.00 lb	40.00%
flaked maize	2.25 lb	45.00%
cane sugar	0.75 lb	15.00%
Fuggles 90 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.125 oz
OG	1033
FG	1012
ABV	2.78
Apparent attenuation	63.64%
IBU	15
SRM	3
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	63.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

US Lagers 1955 - 1962

A little interlude from watery Mild recipes and travel tales. US Lagers from 50-60 years ago.

You may recognise a couple of the names. I think a couple might even still be brewed.

I was reasonably surprised to see that they mostly have pretty decent OGs. For the most part, 1048º or above. So a full 12º Plato. They're around the strength I'd excpect from continental European Pilsners of the same period. My guess would be that modern versions of Miller and Budweiser are more highly attenuated, but lower in gravity.

I'm not sure what the Lowenbrau beer is. It's not quite strong enough to be a Bock. But too strong for a pilsner. I assume - because of how it was listed in the Whitbread Gravity Book - that it was brewed somewhere in the US. Presumably under licence from the Munich brewery.

I'll be back to the same old boring shit next. Just thought I'd make use of these data shavings.

US Lagers 1955 - 1962
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour	package
1955	Liebmann	Rheingold Extra Dry Lager	1049.8	1011.6	4.97	76.71%	6	can
1955	National Brewery	Beer	1050.9	1011	5.19	78.39%	10	bottled
1955	Pabst	Blue Ribbon	1048.9	1011.7	4.84	76.07%	9	can
1956	Miller, Milwuakee	High Life	1045.7	1012.3	4.33	73.09%	6	can
1960	Lowenbrau	Light Special	1061.1	1014	5.89	77.09%	5	bottled
1960	Schlitz	Beer	1048.6	1012.5	4.51	74.28%	5	bottled
1962	Ballantine	Light Lager Beer	1047.9	1013.7	4.28	71.40%	4.5	bottled
1962	Budweiser	Lager Beer	1048.7	1011.7	4.63	75.98%	4.5	bottled
1962	Miller	High Life	1048.6	1011.2	4.67	76.95%	6	bottled
1962	Pabst	Blue Ribbon Beer	1049.3	1011.3	4.75	77.08%	5.5	bottled
1962	Schaefer	Lager Beer	1049.2	1012.7	4.56	74.19%	6	bottled
1962	Schlitz	Beer	1049.2	1012.5	4.59	74.59%	6.5	bottled
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

Something dead cool

for you to buy. My recent books.

Not just clumsily thrown-together asemblages of blog posts, but proper books. Structure, start, finish. All that shit.

First, what I call the expansion pack to The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer. Loads more recipes, including ones cut from the original book. And loads of fun American and continental Lager recipes.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/lets-brew/paperback/product-23289812.html
And, of course, there's the book of which I'm most proud - and even won an award - Scotland! Vo. II. Easily the best book ever written about Scottish beer, with a crazy number of recipes - around 370.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/scotland-vol-2/paperback/product-23090497.html 

I'm getting on dead well with the new book. Should be done in a week or two. Depending on how crazy I go with the recipes.

Back to Amsterdam

No need to get up too early. Just as well, as I'm feeling a little rough. I blame those two litres I drank yesterday afternoon.

That’s weird. It’s warm. Really quite warm. It must be over 20º C. Yesterday it felt like 5º C. From winter to summer overnight. The trees are still all totally bare. Which seems very odd when it’s this warm.

I plan going to Potbelly for a breakfast sarnie. But have a look on the way for a sit-down option. I go a slightly different way and pass the Peninsula. It has a breakfast for $21. A bit pricey, but I've not had a full breakfast on this trip.

It's pretty nice, but not great value for three eggs, two slices of bacon and sausage and two slices of toast. Plus coffee and orange juice. What the hell. It's just the once.

On the table next to me there's a mother with two young daughters. And grandma, who they call Oma. Must be some German blood in them. The kids are pretty noisy, but I don't mind. I can remember when my lads were like that. I've learned to be pretty tolerant of kids. But not so forgiving of miserable adults who whinge at the slightest kid noise. Don't they remember being children themselves?

Checkout is at noon. My flight is at 16:15. But I don't bugger about. Straight to the airport. Slight confession. Last I checked in after getting back from the pub. I was offered a paid upgrade to business class. Being a few drinks in, my willpower wasn't at its strongest. It wasn't crazily expensive, especially if you factor in . . .

I arrive at O'Hare at 12:40. The formalities of bag drop and security don't take long. It's not much past one when I waltz into the business class lounge.

It's quite nice. Great view of the runway. Loads of sandwiches. And self-service spirits. Time to recoup some of that upgrade spend. In bourbon.

To while the time away, while I nibble on sarnies and slurp on bourbon, I fire up my flippity-flop. Damn. It’s won’t start. Is there something wrong with the battery? I’ve been running it on mains power the whole time. But stupidly stuck the power cord in my check in bag. I decide to take the battery out and reinsert it to see if that helps. Amazingly, it does.

Dolores loaded up the first two series of Taskmaster before I left. Lovely woman that she is. I spark up series 1 episode 1.

I have two standard airport stiffeners: Jamesons and Jack Daniels. Depending on where I am. Both are on offer. It's seems only fair to alternate.

This isn't like being in an airport at all, really. No wonder the wealthy are such cocky, smug bastards. A couple more afternoons like this and I'd be there.

I’m feeling pleasantly mellow when boarding of my flight is announced. I finish off my whiskey, close down my computer and trundle off to the gate. It isn’t far.

Onboard, I take full advantage of the food and booze options made available by my upgrade. And watch some more Taskmaster before stretching out and getting my head down. Literally. A get a few hours of pretty decent sleep. I could get used to this.

I don’t wait long for my bag. Before I know it, a taxi is ploughing through the green polder with me in the back. I arrive home before Dolores leaves for work.



The Peninsula Chicago
108 E Superior St,
Chicago, IL 60611.
Tel: +1 312-337-2888
http://chicago.peninsula.com

Clubs in England and Wales 1931 - 1960

You can see that WW II temporarily put the increase in club numbers on hold, but as soon as the war was over they began to rise again.

Clubs in England and Wales 1931 - 1960
Date	Full	Beer / wine	Total Pubs	Registered clubs	total	% clubs
1931	57,072	19,814	76,886	14,377	91,263	15.75%
1932	56,876	19,524	76,400	15,010	91,410	16.42%
1933	56,687	19,268	75,955	15,298	91,253	16.76%
1934	56,538	18,990	75,528	15,657	91,185	17.17%
1935	56,356	18,706	75,062	15,982	91,044	17.55%
1936	56,289	18,392	74,681	16,297	90,978	17.91%
1937	56,233	18,093	74,326	16,563	90,889	18.22%
1938	56,173	17,747	73,920	16,951	90,871	18.65%
1939	56,112	17,460	73,572	17,362	90,934	19.09%
1940	56,047	17,318	73,365	16,463	89,828	18.33%
1941	55,961	17,249	73,210	15,864	89,074	17.81%
1942	55,901	17,191	73,092	15,682	88,774	17.67%
1943	55,868	17,137	73,005	15,732	88,737	17.73%
1944	55,856	17,109	72,965	15,678	88,643	17.69%
1945	55,875	17,085	72,960	15,590	88,550	17.61%
1946	56,009	17,017	73,026	16,496	89,522	18.43%
1947	56,305	16,927	73,232	17,470	90,702	19.26%
1948	58,850	16,534	75,384	18,370	93,754	19.59%
1949	58,140	15,282	73,422	18,962	92,384	20.53%
1950	59,054	14,429	73,483	19,221	92,704	20.73%
1951	59,757	13,664	73,421	19,511	92,932	20.99%
1952	60,333	13,035	73,368	19,903	93,271	21.34%
1953	60,869	12,351	73,220	20,348	93,568	21.75%
1954	61,265	11,708	72,973	20,772	93,745	22.16%
1955	60,670	10,574	71,244	21,164	92,408	22.90%
1956	61,087	9,788	70,875	21,438	92,313	23.22%
1957	61,471	8,882	70,353	21,988	92,341	23.81%
1958	61,762	8,151	69,913	22,567	92,480	24.40%
1959	62,039	7,416	69,455	23,232	92,687	25.07%
1960	63,682	5,502	69,184	23,773	92,957	25.57%
Source:
"Brewers' Almanack 1971", page 83.

Clubs as a percentage of total on-licensees rose every year between the end of the war and 1960. By which time they had hit 25%. Why has so little writing been devoted to the topic of clubs when clearly were home a big part of many's drinking experiences.